Clate Mask is CEO of one of the Inc 500’s fastest-growing companies, Infusionsoft.com. Ask him about how to build a successful business, and he’ll say, “There are three, and only three, factors that really have an iron grip on the profits of any marketing effort. The smartest marketing minds on the planet have boiled these factors down to this simple, but incredibly powerful, formula: The Right Message… To The Right Market… At The Right Time!”

The problem is, most businesses send out a message that’s only relevant to the company owner—that is, to people who are not in the market for their product or service, at a time when they are probably not interested in buying!

We often hear people say “I meant to get around to doing some marketing, but I just didn’t have time, so we just put something out there.” Or, worse, “I got a great deal on this program but I didn’t realize 90 percent of it went to people who don’t buy what I sell.”

Many small business owners spend money on “image” advertising, with no direct response offers included at all. There is no “next step” called for, and thus, no way to measure the effectiveness of the ad. Advertising just your brand is great if you’ve got a million-dollar budget like Nike or Coke, but it’s marketing suicide for the rest of us!

The objective of your marketing efforts is to generate leads—finding people you can follow-up with. When you convey the right message, to the right market, at the right time, you get leads. Social marketing tools in particular, can really help you do this inexpensively and effectively.

Here’s how: You want to attract people who are interested in what you’ve got to sell so you create a dozen powerful, benefit-filled headlines offering to provide free reports or “how-to” documents (or even a dozen different titles for the same document), e.g. “Free report—What you should know before hiring a contractor.” Or, “Get the facts: Learn how to work with a contractor before you renovate.” Offer them on Twitter.com and see which headline generates the most response. Expand the program by posting the same short message on your company’s Facebook.com “fan page” and your LinkedIn.com profile (you have these, right?). Use the same approach to learn what generates the most interest in a free webinar (that you could offer).

Create a series of three-minute videos introducing yourself and offering something—a free guide, a seminar etc. (this will take you about five minutes each using the camera on your computer and an on-line helper like JiveSystems.com). See which one gets the most response and build on that knowledge.

Marketing today is all about getting people to come to you . Stop just talking about your company, and start conversing with your customers and prospects. Offer them content they value—use some easy (and fun) tools and a little bit of learning how to test and track, you’ll soon see results.

Ken Burgin and Elizabeth Walker are the Marketing Masters (www.MarketingMasters.ca), a full-service marketing and advertising partnership that helps build busy businesses. Send your ideas on How to Thrive in Times Like These to liz@marketingmasters.ca or ken@marketingmasters.ca, or call 1-866-908-5720.

web: http://www.marketing,masters.ca
blog: http://thebuzzwithkenandliz.blogspot.com/

Article by Carolyn Higgins

Pick up a newspaper, magazine or advertising circular and look at the ads. What do you see?  A whole bunch of the same thing: a list of services; a company name; a tagline; a pretty graphic; and maybe an offer.

Most businesses think of advertising in one of two ways: 1) Put your company name in front of enough people enough times so they’ll remember you when it’s time to buy. … or 2) Put an “amazing” offer out there and people will be compelled to respond (whether they’ve made the decision to buy or not).

The first scenario is called ”top of mind” advertising and unless you have a multi-million dollar marketing budget it’s very difficult to buy top of mind brand awareness. In the second example advertising sales people want their advertisers to see results (because results sell more advertising), so  they recommend you put an offer  in your ad:  Get 10% off service, $5.00 of a product, buy one get one free, etc.  And sure, that works - sometimes.

Let’s Analyze the “Compelling Offer” Approach:

Does putting an amazing offer in front of people influence them to buy even if they don’t have an immediate or compelling want or need? Does an amazing offer force someone to buy if they don’t have a budget? No, it doesn’t.  So your ad gets completely ignored and you don’t get any response. (Ok to be fair – best case scenario – someone may clip it, stick it to the fridge where it will hang for a month or two before it ends up in a drawer or in the trash).

How an Ad Gets Seen….or Not.

Consider this scenario:   I’m looking at an ad in the free local magazine that comes in the mail every month; it’s an ad for a $75 carpet, tile or grout cleaning.  Well, my tile and grout happen to be pretty clean- well clean enough for me right now. So I’m not interested in spending $75 to get it cleaned, even if it is a great deal. I ignore the ad and move on.

Now let’s think about this… I am a tile owner. At some point in my life I may need tile cleaning services. However, did I notice the name of the business offering the deal? NO. Do I know how they are different from every other steam cleaning company out there? NO. Has this ad given me a reason to remember them when I am ready to get my tile and grout clean? NO. Has this ad engaged me in any way? NO.

Old School Advertising Doesn’t Work!

And what’s the traditional reaction when advertising doesn’t work?    Ask any advertising rep and they’ll tell you - you need to advertise MORE (i.e.: spend MORE money), so that when your prospect is ready to buy  they will see or remember your ad and call you. But how much are you willing to spend to make a sale?

So let’s say you spend $175 / month on the ad and it takes me 6 months to decide I need to clean my tile. Let’s say I happen to choose you because I remembered seeing your ad in the magazine for the past six months and because your offer is better than the other guy who is doing it for $100. You’ve just paid $1050 to get my $75 sale. Sure, you may up-sell me, I may become a regular customer and my life time value may be in the thousands – but those are big “ifs”. Think about that:  you are spending hundreds – or even thousands – of dollars hoping to reach a prospect at exactly the right time in their buying process. Doesn’t that seem like a pretty large gamble to you? No wonder businesses think advertising doesn’t work!

A New Way to Advertise.

What if, instead of advertising with the hope of making your phone ring off the hook and breaking sales records immediately, you take a different approach! What if you try something Duct Tape Marketing calls the “2 Step Approach to Advertising”?   What if, instead of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on print ads trying to find that needle in a haystack – that rare person who is ready to buy what you are offering the second they see your ad – you find potential prospects and get their permission to market to them on a more consistent basis and with more targeted offers while spending less money?

Here’s How 2 Step Advertising Works:

Create an ad offering a free report:  “5 Easy Things You Can do to Keep Your Tile and Grout Clean”. Or better yet, “How to Remove Tile and Grout Stains Yourself”. OK,  I know what you’re thinking… you’re thinking this is crazy and it’s going to cost you business –right?  Well, you’re wrong. It won’t cost you business; in fact this approach will accomplish three things. It will:

1. Get people to your website where they can learn more about you.
2. Attract people who actually own tile and who will give you permission to market to them on a regular basis.
3. Prove that you care more about helping people than making a sale (prospects love that).

The goal of marketing is to get people who have a need to KNOW, LIKE AND TRUST you so when they are ready to buy, they buy from you. Offering helpful and useful information helps build your KNOW, LIKE and TRUST factors and yes, increases sales.

The goal of 2 Step Advertising is to get prospects to your site and get their permission to engage them by collecting their email addresses. Once you have their permission you can email surveys, newsletters, tips and offers geared specifically to their needs on a monthly or bi-monthly basis for about a penny an email.

Think about how powerful that is: You get to communicate with a prospect who has given you permission to market to them for one tiny penny! That’s HUGE!

Your New Advertising Strategy

How many more responses do you think you can get when you stop selling in your advertising and start offering helpful information? People hate to be sold. And that’s what traditional advertising is all about. What if you can get 10 new people on your email list from each ad? What if 1 of those people eventually buys from you at full price – or close to it? What is the cost of that one customer compared to the one you got by practicing traditional advertising?  I guarantee that if you implement this approach as part of your marketing strategy you will get results and begin to see your business grow.

Carolyn Higgins is the President and founder of Fortune Marketing Company. Her personal mission is to help small businesses stop wasting money on advertising and promotions that don’t deliver and help you implement an effective marketing system that will bring you more customers – consistently.

For more information about Carolyn Higgins and Fortune Marketing Company please visit http://www.FortuneMarketingCompany.com.
Email chiggins@fortunemarketingcompany.com or call us at 707.718.4489.

We’re in an economic downturn; a slump in the economy; bad economic times and the list goes on.

Did you ever stop to think how this REALLY affects your business? I mean REALLY; not just believing all the naysayers but day to day what it means to your bottom line. My guess is nothing.  It doesn’t mean a thing. Let’s face it; we’re not Donald Trump wheeling and dealing with billions. We’re the local business next door servicing a few good clients and some so-so clients.

The media has made all the excuses we need to not succeed. If someone asks how things are going, you can say it could be better but you know how the economy is. It’s taking its toll on everyone. I call bull poop. It’s affecting large manufacturers; it’s affecting the stock market and it’s affecting my retirement fund but it is not negatively affecting my business or yours.

What is negatively affecting your business is getting caught up in all the negativity. How do you know this? The leads start to dry up. Is it because of the economy? No! It is because you stopped doing lead generation in your day to day routine.

So what are you afraid of?   don’t believe that you’re afraid there is not enough customers or enough business to go around. Think about it. How many customers do you really need to succeed this year? You don’t know! Well, that is the first thing you need to do. Figure it out. Not knowing is what is scaring the heck out of you. How can you possibly succeed if you don’t know what success looks like. Most small businesses only need a few customers; not thousands.  Some may need 10 good ones and others 100 or so. Either way, it’s not a huge number.

I think you’re afraid of making a commitment; of being accountable; of saying it out loud; maybe even afraid of success. You’ll find by knowing how many customers you need to succeed, you’ll know how many leads you need to generate and you’ll realize that it’s not that big a task and a lot less scary than the unknown.

Brenda Mahoney is a successful marketing coach with a passion for helping others succeed, personally and professionally. Working in the corporate world as well as being a business owner and marketing consultant for many years, Brenda has a strong track record for success. She’s worked with businesses in many different industries and loves what she does.
http://www.criticaledgemarketing.com/

]]> http://upandrunning.bplans.com/2010/06/02/what-are-you-afraid-of/feed/ 1 http://upandrunning.bplans.com/2010/05/07/criticalbiz-founder-knows-how-critical-business-plan-is/ http://upandrunning.bplans.com/2010/05/07/criticalbiz-founder-knows-how-critical-business-plan-is/#comments Fri, 07 May 2010 15:07:28 +0000 Jay Snider http://blog.bplans.com/?p=3440

Like a lot of entrepreneurs, Michael Turner started his own company after growing disillusioned with working for somebody else. As he remembers: “There were meetings galore, lots of PowerPoint slide shows, big buzzwords that meant nothing—all resulting in very little productivity, but costing millions of dollars.” After 10 years, Turner decided to head out on his own.

In 2006, he started Marketing Max, with the goal of providing companies with marketing, PR, and design services. With business plan in hand, he and his wife relocated from Atlanta to Jacksonville, Florida, hired an employee, and landed several large clients.

Despite his strong belief in the power of a planning, says Michael, “nothing prepared us for what happened a few years later. In 2009, when the U.S. economy tanked like most of us have never seen, every one of our larger clients almost instantly laid people off and cut back on marketing spend.”

This had a tremendous effect on Marketing Max’s business. “I knew I needed to target more small businesses that, while also affected by the economy, still needed pros to help them market their businesses to survive.” So, rather than cutting back like so many others were doing, Michael instead changed gears.

“Later that year, I revived an old name that I had used for a popular small business community website back in the early 1990s called CriticalBiz. I shifted focus a bit and extended the services that we offered at Marketing Max, but on a much more simplified level with very clear terms. Instead of the intimidating “big marketing firm” persona that was Marketing Max, I decided to get more personal.”

Starting over

CriticalBiznow offers services ranging from document creation, employee recruiting, graphic design and copywriting, to sales, public relations, and even Web design and development. Michael brings more than 20 years of business experience to the table, and enlists a team of consultants who are experts in a variety of fields to assist. The idea behind CriticalBiz is that they can provide services that go beyond typical “virtual assistant” tasks but that aren’t needed often enough to justify hiring a full-time employee. As the website says, “working with CriticalBiz means you can focus on other things that may be more important to your business.”

Before he ever struck out on his own, Michael armed himself with a plan. “Before leaving [his previous position]… I put a ton of time and energy into writing the business plan for Marketing Max. I utilized Business Plan Pro, as it forced me to stay on track and organized. I was not seeking outside capital, but did enlist a former colleague to review the plan. This forced me to write as if I were in fact presenting the plan—it helps to keep things honest and realistic.” That planning helped him weather the economic downturn, and helped him figure out what the next logical steps for his business should be.

Michael is a true believer in planning. He feels that a business plan is not just a static document that you write up and stick in a drawer. “I believe that a business plan is a living document that needs to act as a guide to success,” he says, rather than a document created as part of a one-time process that a business owner goes through.

photo by flickr user JMRosenfeld

Think like a football coach

Michael sets aside a full day every quarter to review and refine both his marketing plan and his business plan. “Far too many of those that do create business plans, simply do so by going through the motions,” says Michael. “Once it’s written, it goes into a file cabinet, never to be seen again. If more people would use their business plans like a football coach uses his playbook — to strategically manage the game — fewer businesses would fail.”

In fact, according to Michael, some of the biggest mistakes made by entrepreneurs are caused by a failure to plan. “I would be willing to bet that most small-business owners spend more time planning a vacation than they do planning for their businesses,” he says, noting “if more small businesses would stop to create a detailed business plan, including all of the market research and number crunching that they should be doing,” they would be better off.

Speaking of crunching numbers, Michael echoes what a lot of folks say when asked about the toughest part of writing a business plan. “The hardest part is the financials. This section of the plan requires you to be completely honest with yourself. Business Plan Pro made the number crunching much easier for me because it forced me to answer the tough questions. The math doesn’t lie, and making sure you put all of the right numbers in is critical. You have to keep things real!”

As Michael sees it, the value of the plan is lost if you don’t remember that you’re not fantasizing or imagining best-case scenarios. You’re doing your best to project into the future. “Those who do plan, and are honest with themselves throughout the process, will be able to cope with critical issues much, much easier when they do arise… and they will. Planning ahead of time always makes for a more predictable, successful outcome,” he says.

Is your website driving sales or is it driving potential customers away? Think about it — how you present yourself via your website is your customer’s first impression of you and your business. What you say and how you say it matters.

There are plenty of excellent resources available to guide you in writing compelling copy for your site. For instance, Copyblogger is a great source of tips, stories, and general information on Web copywriting and writing for search engine optimization (SEO).

While researching copywriting courses, I came across another site that offered articles, books, and courses on writing Web copy. Much to my surprise (and amusement), the word “copywriting” contained a typo in it. In the headline. On the Home page!

If you are a software company or a travel agent, let’s say, a typo on your Home page might be embarrassing. A typo in the first headline a visitor sees… we’ll call that REALLY embarrassing.

But if you are selling products about writing Web content, your website should contain clean, well-edited copy. A typo in the first sentence shows sloppiness. Carelessness. A serious lack of attention to detail. When there are countless similar resources out there and I can find them with a simple mouse click, a misplaced letter in a headline is enough for me to look elsewhere for a writing class.

The “expert” in question thanked me for pointing out his mistake when I emailed him, though he dismissed my comment that he might be losing customers by being careless. His reply was essentially, “would you stop reading a book because you found a typo in it?” And my reply was, “if I hadn’t bought it yet, and the typo was on the first page, and it was a book about writing? You bet I’d stop reading it!”

Now, I’m a writer and editor. So admittedly my tolerance for typos is probably lower than the average person’s. But just because it’s fast and easy to fix typos and mistakes online, compared to those in a book or magazine or newspaper (where the best you can do is issue a correction after the fact), doesn’t mean that you don’t need to proofread, edit, and review your content for mistakes, misspellings, and typos.

It might seem old school, but it’s also common sense. And it applies to any website, regardless of what you’re selling. With so many online options available to them, you need to make sure you’re not making it easy for your customers to dismiss you.

image by Dainis Graveris, 1st Web Designer.com

-Jay Snider
Palo Alto Software

It is inevitable that today’s consumer is hearing mentions of social media in the traditional media at least a couple of times daily. Couple this with watching children, family members and friends joining and participating in sites like Facebook and you have a whole new world of opportunity. The point at which Facebook crossed 400 million users (if Facebook were a country it would be the third largest country in the world) is the point where the question “are my customers on Facebook?” became moot.

As a small business owner, if you are now convinced that at the very least you need to tip your toes into social media, questions that immediately come to mind are:

•    Where do we start?
•    Where do we find the time?
•    What about our traditional marketing?

These are the right questions to ask; here are a few steps for you to conduct a social media inventory for your business.

1.    Take a look at your reflection in the Search Engine mirror
Have you searched for yourself in a search engine lately (Google, Bing, Yahoo!)? It is no longer narcissistic to search for your own name in a search engine.  In fact this should be a business requirement. Your customers are doing this before deciding to give you the business. When you search for your name, business name, or product name, take a look at the results of the first few pages. Look for results that you control, e.g. links to profile pages on LinkedIn, business directories like Yelp, etc. It may be time to update the profiles and take ownership of the listing. Most directories offer that to business owners.

2.    Who is talking about you?
Set up Google Alerts for your business and your names, and keywords about your industry. These alerts can be set up in real time or once a day/week. You can also set up  Google alerts to check on your competition with their keywords. Also consider setting alerts for events and happenings in your local area.

3.   Establish yourself as an expert
Sites like LinkedIn.com have question and answer forums on a wide variety of topics. Most likely you are going to find one that pertains to your expertise or your businesses expertise.  Choose two to three industry blogs or ask and answer questions on LinkedIn and join the conversation. Remember, there’s a difference between joining the conversation and spamming the community with information about your business.  If your profile contains all your business information such as your website, email, phone number, etc., people may follow the information back to your website.

4.    Which side of the website population are you?
The Small Business Success index has consistently found that around 50% of small businesses do not have websites.  A website is your online marketing tool and can be used in conjunction with your social media and your traditional marketing tools. Take the time to  set up a website for your business if you do not already have one.

5.    Integrate your social media into your traditional marketing
Let your customers know the social networks you are part of and always have a link from your website to your social media profiles.  Communicate to your social media network about your email marketing.

6.    Your social media plan:
•    Set up Alerts
•    Join and set up profiles in three social networks
•    Spend 15-20 minutes a day tracing the alerts and responding
•    Choose three blogs on your field to read and comment
•    Converse, don’t sell
•    Answer questions and become an expert in your niche on LinkedIn
•    Devote two  hours a week to learning and writing about the products you promote
•    Measure your efforts.  How many times were you mentioned?  How many people read your posts?
•    Allow your customers to evangelize your business by putting social media sharing tools, like AddThis on your site
•    Attend one local event a month and network
•    Ask for help from the community if you need it

If all of that seems like a lot, let me leave you with 4 things you can do today:
1) Set up Google Alerts
2) Find three blogs to follow. Join the conversation there. Network!
3) Set up a website (see special offer from Network Solutions specifically for Palo Alto Software customers)
4)  Set up 1-3 social networking profiles

Shashi Bellamkonda works at the heart of Web hosting company, Network Solutions®, as their first-ever ‘Social Media Swami’. In this leadership role he has helped Network Solutions aggressively move into the online space to actively listen to and interact with its customers. A self-proclaimed early adopter, prolific Twitterer, photographer, blogger, and product innovator, Shashi lives for technology, testing new innovations and helping people with small businesses to succeed.

Follow Network Solutions on Twitter or visit our blog for more resources for small business owners.
On Twitter: Netsolcares or check out our Growsmartbusiness blog

We’re in the middle of business plan competition season, and we’re seeing some great plans, and a lot of common mistakes. We’ve assembled some of our best advice on business competitions, below.

Ask Tim Berry – Tips for Business Plan Competitions

• Don’t Shade Your Eyes, Summarize: “I don’t care if you’re the next big thing, with an unimaginably exciting new idea and a great team, you can still create a meaningful summary in 10 pages.”
• Writing an Executive Summary: Hit these highlights, and customize your Executive Summary for the intended audience.
• Estimating Unknown Expenses: How do you predict expenses? Normally you need some experience. If you have no idea, then you might think again about starting this business.
• Why not do your best? If you’re going to a graduate level intercollegiate and international venture competition, ask somebody to edit the plan for simple practical writing. Make sure your projected income and balance link up correctly with the cash flow, and that the cash flow understands working capital. Use business charts to illustrate the main numbers.
• How to Succeed in Competitions: Competitions normally receive far more entrants than they can practically screen any other way, so the business plan is the critical document. This white paper explains how to customize and improve the output you create in Business Plan Pro to meet the sophisticated needs of a venture contest.

How to lose a business plan competition

• Top 10 Business Plan Mistakes: From “hockey stick” forecasts to technobabble to numbers without charts, Tim Berry discusses the most common planning mistakes in business plan competitions, and why they irritate judges.
• Big Mistake: On Business Plans, Cash, Investment, and Whose Peace of Mind Matters: You don’t ask for investment so you can have cash in the bank.
• Big Mistake: Business Plans And Investor Returns: Investors care about returns, but you can’t predict them accurately. Show them credible management, sales, and market knowledge instead.

Presenting your plan to judges:

Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 Rule: How listening to crappy business plan pitches is giving Guy Ménière’s disease.

Ask Tim Berry – The Elevator Pitch

Sara Prentice Manela
Editor

Many of us would love to be invisible from time to time, but not so much when it comes to our online presence. And yet, finding that your website is invisible is a pretty common experience for small businesses.

You built a website, you got it hosted, and maybe you even used a pretty template. That’s a great start, but if you want your website to really work for your business, you need to make sure your potential customers can find it.

Ask your customers
Ask the next ten customers you talk to whether they know you have a website. If they say no, take a look around – is your website’s URL listed on your receipts, your invoices, your business card, your stationery, your posters? Is it listed on your coupons, newspaper ads, your yellow pages listing? If you’re wondering why you should bother telling current customers about your website, consider that these are your best sources for referrals. These days, when someone you know refers you to a business, if you’re like most people, the first thing you do is take a look at the website. If your current customers don’t know you have a website, they can’t offer that information to other prospects.

Use technology
There’s a lot of free technology out there to help you target the keywords, search patterns, and related websites that your potential customers are already using. Save time, energy and money by focusing your efforts on real prospects, and not just on getting more uninterested visitors.

• Google Analytics is a free tool that helps you track the traffic, most popular content, and traffic sources for every page of your website.
• Google also offers a free keyword search tool that will help you pinpoint keywords related to your existing website pages.
• Target pay-per-click ads to websites your potential customers are already visiting. Internet marketing doesn’t have to be hard. For example, if you’re a hardware store, your customers may also be looking at do-it-yourself websites. Think in terms of the customer’s overall needs, rather than what you sell.
• Your domain name can be an asset in and of itself, either as something memorable (www.colbertnation.com capitalizes on the host’s fame and persona), or generic (www.garden.com gets a lot of traffic just with its name), or specific (www.berkshiregas.com is a website for a utility company in Berkshire County, Massachusetts).

Local search
A decade or two ago, you could be assured that any local customers looking for your type of business would turn first to the yellow pages in their printed phone book. Today, they are much more likely to turn to a search engine. If you do business directly with local customers in a physical location, local search will be important. At the very least, your website needs to include your name and some way to contact you – a physical address, a phone number, email address, hours of operation, whatever is most relevant to your customers.

John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing, has a great blog post about getting your website ready for local search. His tips include customizing the page titles with local information (“YOURFIRMNAME Kansas City’s oldest bakery”), and using local terms in your internal links (links between pages on your website). Read the full post: Is Your Website Ready for Local Search Engine Traffic?

Keep it fresh
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a whole art unto itself, but if you want your website to appear within the first page of results for a particular query, adding fresh content to your website will help your rankings. Put a weekly or monthly to-do on your marketing list to write a new helpful tip for your customers, and post it on your website. You can archive these on the site to increase the information available, or keep them in rotation for seasonal variation, depending on your type of business. For example, a bakery might feature a recipe of the month using seasonal ingredients, or a retail clothing store could post a fashion advice article on pairing accessories. If you own a business, you have something to say – put it on your website!

Do something unexpected
This option is not for everyone, but if you have the creativity and the relevance, try offering something unexpected.

• Blenders are boring, right? Not if they’re blending an iPad.
• Wondering how to spice up a body-wash commercial? With humor, of course.

This may all sound like a lot of work, but you can take it a little bit at a time. Building up your website presence is not a one-time thing, but a steady effort that should be on your marketing list every month. Take a cue from another superhero, The Green Lantern, and know that with willpower and the right tools, you can do anything.

Sara Prentice Manela
Editor

If you’re reading this blog, it’s safe to assume you’re somewhat Web-savvy, right? You’re operating a computer, you have access to the Internet. You found a blog you were interested in reading…

So, do you have a website? If you operate a small business, how do your customers find you?

As a software company employee, I probably spend more time online than the average person. I acknowledge that. But I don’t think I’m too terribly out of the ordinary in my personal (as opposed to professional) reliance on the Internet as a source of information.

Here’s what I know. If I search for a company and can’t find them online, I make certain assumptions. Either they’re a small-time operation, they’re brand new, or they don’t want to be found.

Now, the last possibility — not wanting to be found — is the only acceptable reason to not have any Web presence. And by acceptable, I mean it’s a questionable business decision, but an acceptable rationale for not having a website. If your business plan is to NOT attract new customers or make yourself available to your existing ones, then you’re doing great by not having that website.

photo by flickr user tonythemisfit

Let’s assume that invisibility is not your goal, though. Maybe you’re a mom and pop operation. You don’t take online orders and you don’t care if your company’s name gets in front of anyone in any other part of the country or world.

You still have customers or clients. And you want them to be able to find you. Maybe all they need to know are your hours of operation, or your phone number, or your street address. Maybe they want to look at your breakfast menu, or whether you service their make/model of car. And maybe it’s midnight… There are too many ‘maybes’ to list. The point is, when even your grandfather has a phone capable of browsing the Internet, it’s more important than ever to make sure that people can find you.

An ad in the yellow pages doesn’t cut it anymore. According to MarketingCharts.com, a 2009 study showed that 63 percent of consumers and small business owners use the Internet as their first source of information. So if you’re not making yourself available to them by having a website (and according to the study, a shocking 56% of small businesses aren’t), you’re basically hiding. At best, you’re making your customers take extra steps. At worst, you’re inviting your customers and potential customers to go to your competition.

You don’t have to be a computer programmer to make a website. In fact, website design is pretty easy, with templates and step-by-step wizards available to guide you through the creation process. You don’t need to know code or be a designer to create something that will look nice and be useful. Companies like our partners at Network Solutions offer great deals on packages that include domain names and hosting, site building tool, and even personalized email addresses.

It’s 2010. Any business, of any size, without a website is simply waiting to be passed by.

-Jay Snider
Palo Alto Software

Today’s post is from one of our new partners, Network Solutions. We’re pleased to introduce Shashi Bellamkonda as today’s guest author.

Expanding your markets using online tools

Chris Anderson, Executive Editor of Wired, said at the GrowSmartBiz Small Business conference last year that once a business has a website, it is global. Small businesses are always looking for new ways to expand their customer base and connect with customers. Using the Internet and the arsenal of tools that come with a Web presence is a great way to increase the reach of a small business. Those with more time than capital are creating their own websites and taking steps to ensure that they are found by search engines. Often, these steps include taking advantage of free or affordable online tools that boost their chances of being found by customers.

Jumping over the hurdle

Today only about 50% of small businesses have a website. Why? Many business owners are simply too intimidated by the prospect of starting an online business. Although getting started can be a major hurdle, it is one that must be cleared in order to explore the opportunities that the Internet has to offer.

When you’re ready to get started online, you will find it helpful to have a clear goal in mind. For your business website, that goal is likely business growth. As you create your website, keep in mind that it will function as a marketing tool for your business. Even the most basic website can play an important role in establishing your visibility online by providing a place for customers to find your contact information or a basic list of products or services.

The cost of creating a website varies. Your design options will include building your own website using a website builder tool or having a designer create a custom site for you. You may decide to start simple, then upgrade as your business grows.

As a special offer to Palo Alto Software customers, Network Solutions^® has agreed to offer websites for $4.99/month (discount will display at checkout, only by clicking here).

Getting found around town

Local businesses share a common online goal: to drive customers from their website to their front door. Business listings in Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Yelp and Merchant Circle can help you achieve so-called local search visibility. These listings typically include a map that can make it easy for customers to find you. And while you can show up on a site like Merchant Circle without having a business website, you’re much better off having a website that gives more information about the products or services you offer.

How does local search work? Let’s say someone is hungry for pizza in Manassas, Virginia. They search “Pizza Manassas” on their mobile device and a list of business results appears. If the business they find has a website, they can look at a menu and use the phone number provided to place their order. Finally, they can refer to the address and map provided to pick up their food.

Businesses can make the most of the power of local search by having a website that includes maps, directions, a local phone number, contact information and more.

Network Solutions has agreed to offer their Local Search Visibility product for $19.99/month (normally $39.95/month).  You must use this link to have the discount applied at checkout.

Connecting with your customers:

The results of a survey sponsored by Network Solutions® and the University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business suggest that the number of small business owners using social media to connect with their customers is growing rapidly. The survey reported that small business use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter has doubled from 12 percent to 24 percent in the past year. The highlights of the study emphasize the increasingly important role that social media is playing in the success of small businesses.

As more and more small businesses are discovering each day, social media can be a powerful tool for building and maintaining customer relationships. Blogs, social networks and forums help small business owners:

• Identify and attract new customers
• Develop higher awareness of their business in their target market
• Make more connections with existing customers

Follow Network Solutions on Twitter or visit our blog for more resources for small business owners.

Netsolcares
Growsmartbusiness blog

Shashi Bellamkonda works at the heart of Web hosting company, Network Solutions, as their first-ever ‘Social Media Swami’. In this leadership role he has helped Network Solutions aggressively move into the online space to actively listen to and interact with its customers. A self-proclaimed early adopter, prolific Twitterer, photographer, blogger, and product innovator, Shashi lives for technology, testing new innovations and helping people with small businesses to succeed.